Kennedy Bros Agri Contractors Ltd has been serving the needs of farmers in the midlands and west for over 65 years. Operating from Ballyforan on the Roscommon-Galway border, the family-run concern offers a comprehensive agri contracting service which includes silage cutting, round baling, slurry spreading, ploughing, reseeding and plant hire.
Established by Tom Kennedy in 1950, Kennedy Bros Agri Contractors is nowadays run by his sons John, Pat and William – who is also a sheep farmer – and grandsons John Jnr and Tom Jnr. The quintet are joined in the business by three full-time staff. A 1956 Major, which was the first tractor ever purchased by Tom Kennedy, continues to take pride of place in the yard, having been restored to its former glory by his grandsons a few years ago.
Committed to providing an unrivalled service and complete customer satisfaction, the Kennedy’s have a wide range of machinery to carry out your work quickly and efficiently, providing you with value-for-money and an alternative to investing in your own expensive equipment. The company’s success is down to the knowledge, skill and expertise of its staff, as well as the quality of its equipment. The family business delivers the value and quality farmers expect from their agricultural contracting partner.
There are 10 tractors within the Kennedy fleet – five Claas, two Case IH and one Deutz Fahr, John Deere and McCormick each. There are four Claas Arion 640s and one Claas Arion 650, which was purchased from Quigley’s Garage in Ahascragh, Co. Galway at the start of the year. John Kennedy Jnr is delighted with the new investment, which delivers 180hp, commenting: “It’s flying it. We always try to upgrade every year and keep our fleet as fresh as possible.”
The Claas models are complemented by a pair of Case IH CVX 195s, a 250hp Deutz Fahr 630, a John Deere 6910 and a McCormick 135. The John Deere was purchased new in 1999 and continues to great service.
Other plant / equipment operated by the Kennedy’s include three John Deere and two Krone grass mowers, three McHale round balers (two Fusion and one normal), a Tanco bale wrapper, a New Holland 9060 forage harvester, a new Case IH 721 loading shovel, two Claas rakes, a Lemken plough, a Kverneland power harrow, a Rabe disc harrow, five silage trailers, two dump trailers, three Major and one HiSpec slurry tankers, a pair of NC 4800 agitators, a Teagle muck spreader and a Mastek Slurry Mate umbilical system. Purchased in 2012, the umbilical system consists of 1,400 metres of piping and features include a dribble bar.
The umbilical application system has many advantages over traditional tanker-based application methods, the main ones being it empties slurry tanks and lagoons much faster, reduces / eliminates soil compaction and reduces fuel consumption as the contractor is not constantly travelling from the yard to the field. The Kennedy’s umbilical system was in high demand last winter when flooding was widespread in their area.
“We were lucky to get Christmas Day off because of all the flooding. Your heart would go out to the people who were affected by it. I would like to think that we were of some help to them,” recalls John, who notes how umbilical slurry spreading is becoming increasingly popular.
The contractor recently took delivery of a new 4,000-gallon Major slurry tanker to add to its impressive array of slurry spreading equipment. The Deutz Fahr 630, which is the biggest tractor in the fleet, powers three mowers (one at the front and two butterfly at the back), while the Case IH 195s can power two mowers (one in front and one behind).
As already stated, all machines are upgraded on a regular basis to avoid breakdowns and downtime. The tractors are usually sent to Quigley’s Garage for servicing and maintenance.
The Kennedy’s are busy all year round with their agricultural contracting business. In the early part of the year, the focus is very much on slurry spreading. The silage and baling season gets underway in May and runs until September. This is a particularly hectic time for the family who will work around the clock to keep their clients happy. It’s followed in the autumn by more slurry spreading.
“At least six months of the year is taken up with slurry spreading. The rest of the year is filled in with silage and round baling, ploughing and reseeding. In addition to these services, my uncle Pat has a New Holland excavator which he hires out.”
According to John, a growing number of the agri contractor’s clients are choosing round bales over pit silage. “Most of our customers are suckler farmers and the round bales seem to suit them better. We’re cutting 3,000 acres of round bales compared to 2,000 acres of silage per year. It used to be the other way around.”
Kennedy Bros Agri Contractors Ltd has a large and loyal customer-base within a 15-mile radius of Ballyforan. “Our catchment area is from Ballinasloe across to Athlone and up to Roscommon town. We cover three or four counties,” he says.
John concludes by thanking the customers for their continued support: “Some of them have been with us for 50 years. They have stayed loyal to us because we offer a professional, reliable and clean service at a competitive price. We would like to take this opportunity to thank them for their business and look forward to working for and with them for many more years to come.”
For all your agriculture contracting needs in the midlands and west, look no further than Kennedy Bros Agri Contractors Ltd.
Kennedy Bros Agri Contractors Ltd
Coolatubber,
Ballyforan,
Ballinasloe,
Co. Roscommon.
Telephone: 087 6222172 (John Jnr)
086 0678221 (Tom Jnr)
Taken from Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 4 No 4, April 2016
